TATE SEDAR: "I discovered an emotion within that basically represented a breakdown"

TATE SEDAR is an electronic artist carving out a distinct lane he calls "post-EDM", blending organic textures with digital production shaped by influences from Motown, disco, hip-hop, and rock. He broke onto the global stage during the 2020 EDC Virtual Rave-a-Thon and soon after joined the Insomniac artist roster. In 2024, his catalogue surpassed 8.3 million streams, with tracks like "Our Goodbye (feat. Liv Kennedy)" and "Heaven" earning radio support on terrestrial outlets and BPM, alongside coverage from EDM.com, Dancing Astronaut, and We Rave You. On stage, he’s performed alongside acts such as R3HAB, Don Diablo, Cash Cash, Breathe Carolina, and Wolfgang Gartner, bringing his sound to venues including Academy LA and Avalon Hollywood.

Your new single "breakDOWN" has a very personal sound. Can you walk us through the creative process behind the track and what you wanted listeners to feel?

Thanks for having me. Yeah, honestly, it was one of those tracks that I kind of just started on a whim – a little more experimental. I was really interested in a lot of bass house and UK garage at the end of 2023; I’d also been itching to make some breakbeat as I hadn’t in a minute and it’s part of my roots. But I knew deep down that the song could mean something more when I came up with the lead and discovered an emotion within that basically represented a “breakdown.” It started as something more exploratory, but ended up finding its own meaning through the process itself.

In recent years, you’ve talked about "post-EDM", blending analog and digital instruments. How does “breakDOWN” reflect this vision, and how do your early influences—Motown, disco, hip-hop, and rock—come into play?

Funny enough, “breakDOWN” is sort of the follow-up to post EDM…or “post-post EDM,” if you will. As a creative and formally a singer, I always take a compositional approach to music. Production can do that, but you can also fiddle around without a premeditated structure. 
For me, I come in with the familiar outline of: a) an area that people can sort of melodically hook into, or even sing (which is where the vocal comes in) and then b) have [an area with] a cathartic release (which is in the drops). So I would say a lot of that compositional outlook comes from my experience in dancepop, which is just heavily rooted in those pop genres that are my influences.

Whereas post-EDM pulled from the past, I’m now elaborating on those foundations and looking to the future. If I were to examine more specifically, though, I think there is definitely heavier hip-hop influences in this track tied into breakbeat.
It's actually kind of a mix between OG electro, breakbeat and garage (which of course, breakbeat is in the family of).

You’ve performed alongside artists like Dada Life, Don Diablo, and Cash Cash. How have these collaborations and live experiences shaped your style and approach to producing "breakDOWN"?

I would say that the middle section has a more progressive house palette that I could probably credit to acts I’ve supported like Breathe Carolina, Cash Cash, Borgeous and R3hab. However, this track is really fed by my time playing a lot of underground shows in Los Angeles the last 5 years – where the soundtrack is a lot more eclectic – and the teenager (me) that started DJing breakbeat on Technics back in London.

If I did have to think of a more, like, modern act that inspired this one, it would probably be Henry Fong (a fellow Dim Mak artist). I've had the opportunity to play with him twice and reconnect with him on a couple occassions. Most recently after a panel he spoke at in our local Industry Hours event. I confided with him how – when I opened for him – I didn't realize that he was kind of building this bass house and bass-adjacent sound from 2021 that paved the way for acts like Knock2 and ISOxo. 
I told him I understood it now and was grateful for that because eventually he and his successors played a part in my sound. And in return, he told me that that “means a lot.”

It’s funny that people can influence you in ways you least expect, even later on in different phases of their careers. I was originally influenced by Henry’s old electro house sound, and now I’m influenced by his bass-adjacent projects.
And I think that is the perfect example of that [idea].

Your career has accelerated rapidly since 2020, with millions of streams and global playlist features. How do you balance the pressure of success with staying true to your artistic vision?

I'm glad you actually brought this up because in truth, I feel like I'm only at 10 or 15% of sharing my artistic vision. It's difficult right now to make income in a streaming-focused industry. There are a lot of ideas I want to take risks on; at the same time, those same ricks could not necessarily stream well and only still give me pennies. In ways, I've used these last 5 years as a learning experience, but also to really get my name out there. I'm still kind of building my audience, especially outside of LA. 

And I think that, I could keep doing as I'm doing and share those ideas eventually, or I could take that risk today. Every creation is always a risk, but you always have those bigger ideas. Some of those ideas, to be quite frank, have a little more interest in social issues of society. And that's where I struggle a little bit: there's just a lot of noise out there, and it's hard to know if anything like that is going to break the noise. 
Especially when there aren't a lot of artists now speaking out about those issues. But it's something I still want to do, and I'm thinking a lot more about that vision and where I want to go. It might be soon, it might be in a year or so, but just know that it is still part of who I am and I'm very keen to continue & eventually show that other 85%.

Looking ahead, how do you see the concept of "post-EDM" evolving, and what new elements are you excited to explore in your upcoming music after breakDOWN?

What I love about this sound or what I've essentially put together is that it is a substrate. It is something that I can always come back to. It's something that, you know, feels familiar yet new at the same time: using elements of dancepop in a way that acknowledges progressive production, while most of the time putting it in a familiar popular songwriting format. At the moment, I'm diving into what I like to call ‘the grey between progressive and bass music.’ It still has the same DNA of post-EDM, but as a progressive (not as in progressive house but in the dictionary definition of ‘progressive’) artist, exploring more about music production. This concept is still rooted in post-EDM: I think right now, I'm able to experiment, but also stay in line with an original paradigm. Post-EDM is always going to be there [for me] and something that I can even come back to, even in its core form, but right now I’m in a developmental phase again. After “breakDOWN,” I'm doing a lot of that – progression – easing into bass house, electro house as always, but techno and some bass music too.
It's exciting. It still feels anchored in what I’ve constructed, but can also contribute to that larger vision of resonating with people beyond rhythm.

Follow TATE SEDAR

Instagram / Facebook / Soundcloud / YouTube / Spotify